You can't take the sky from me

Minos

The planet Minos is the fifth planet of the Gamma subsystem. Although terraforming was basically successful, its long orbital period combined with a severe orbital tilt give Minos long and brutal seasons. There are relatively few areas where the planet can be comfortably inhabited year-round. For the rest, most of the world is only inhabitable for part of the (long) year.

The main draw of Minos is its unusually rich mineral resources, many of which are easily surveyed and accessed from the surface and shallow mines. It didn’t take long for the largest mining outfits to form a cartel and carve the planet up between them.

Since there are so many rich mineral deposits near the surface, the most practical method of mining has been to cherrypick the best ones, set up a quick&dirty mining facility, mine all of the easily obtainable resources, then airlift the expensive equipment to the next nearest deposit. The consantly-moving mining operations follow not only the richest resources, but also the slowly shifting seasons (its cheaper to mine where the weather is good).

This approach to mining has left the planet scattered with hundreds of abandoned or nearly-abandoned mining facilities (often including a nearby spaceport built with the same short-term goals in mind). Some of them will be reopened when good weather returns or richer deposits eventually run out. Others have been abandoned completely. Some of those are squatted in by various individuals and groups looking for shelter or a ready-made base of operations.

Granny Tea’s notes on Minos:Okay, everyone, I’ve been able to dig up and remember some of what I’ve heard about Minos. The people that originally settled this here planet came from Far East Asia back on Earth. It was originally called Horae and advertised by the terraforming company as “The place where summer lasts forever!” – skipping completely over the fact that winter, also, seemed to last forever.Considering it’s desolate climate, the people that actually lived on it nicknamed it “Minos” after some Greek deity who had something to do with the afterlife, and the name kinda stuck.A lot of the people on this planet have “last” names first, and you need to remember that when addressing them – you would call Rim Juhyung, “Ms. Rim” when speaking to her, not “Ms. Juhyung” (which would be quite rude, especially since "Ms. [given name] is how they address prostitutes here). Since many people also have their given names first, it is not impolite or uncommon to ask “What can I call you?” when being introduced in person – and you very, very rarely introduce yourself by yourself in person. People here are a suspicious and cautious lot, and they will usually assume you are up to no good if you walk up to them without someone they recognize to introduce you.